The present invention relates to an improved container to hold a plurality of stacks of sheet material.
During operation of a printing press, it is frequently advantageous to provide buffer storage for sections of a newspaper or magazine. When needed, the sections of a newspaper or magazine are moved out of storage and collated with other sections of the newspaper or magazine. Apparatus for use in storing newspaper sections is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,462,735 and 4,977,827.
An apparatus for sequentially loading sheet material articles into a plurality of compartments in each of a plurality of containers is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,598. To load an empty container, the empty container is transferred from an infeed shuttle assembly to a carriage assembly. Compartments in the empty container are sequentially filled with sheet material articles while the container is supported by the carriage assembly. In order to position the empty compartments of the container at a loading station, the carriage assembly is operable to move the empty container along a linear path and to rotate the container about a vertical axis.
Once the various compartments in the container have been loaded with stacks of sheet material articles, the container is transferred from the carriage assembly to an outfeed shuttle assembly. The container, with a plurality of stacks of sheet material articles, is then moved to a storage location.
An apparatus for unloading stacks of sheet material articles from a container is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 720,887, filed Jun. 25, 1991 by Stephen R. Kleinhen and entitled "Sheet Material Handling Apparatus and Method". The unloader apparatus includes a shuttle assembly which is operable to move a container having a plurality of compartments containing stacks of sheet material onto a carriage assembly adjacent to an unloader assembly. After the unloader assembly has removed the stacks of sheet material from the container, the container is moved away from the carriage assembly by a second shuttle assembly. During the unloading process, the carriage assembly is operated to move the container toward and away from the unloader assembly and to rotate the container about a vertical axis.
The unloader assembly includes a lift assembly which engages the lower end of a stack of sheet material in a compartment of the container and lifts the stack of sheet material upwardly through an open lower end portion of an upright hopper. When the stack of sheet material has been moved into the hopper by the lift assembly, the hopper and the stack of sheet material are moved to a tilted orientation. As this occurs, a lower end portion of the stack of sheet material is moved upwardly along an inclined ramp into engagement with a sheet material feed assembly. The sheet material feed assembly is then operated to sequentially feed sheet material from the tilted stack.